Another Unarmed Black Man Murdered by Police…and This One Also Won’t be the Last

If we have any hope of fixing this scourge, it's time for the police apologists to drop the defensiveness. Now.

Every time I see the latest example of police brutality resulting in the death of an unarmed, usually black citizen, I try to be hopeful that this is the one that will cause the sleepers to wake up.

Yet again, I’m disappointed.

Terence Crutcher, 40, unarmed, black, and male, was shot dead September 20, 2016 by Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby. Moments before the shooting, he had his hands up and was walking slowly away from Shelby, who had her weapon drawn and readied. Crutcher was not making any sudden movements, and he was not in immediate access to any weapons.

Moments later, Crutcher was dead from police fire.

Surely, this is an easy one, right? A police officer panicked and made a mistake. We can even be generous and assume a lack of open malice. I don’t think Officer Shelby woke up that morning thinking, “I’m going to go shoot myself a black man, for kicks.”

I think Officer Shelby made a tragic mistake, and that she’s a symptom of a bigger problem of cops with too much power and not enough consequence.

There’s clear footage that Crutcher was not making any sudden movements. The absolute worst case scenario is that Crutcher may have been reaching, slowly, into his SUV. That’s what Shelby says: She thought he was reaching for a gun, so she shot him.

In the moments during which Crutcher walked slowly towards his SUV, she or the other officers on site had time to explore other options. Taser? Surround him and keep him from his vehicle? Shoot him in the leg to disable him? Secure a perimeter behind the police vehicles?

The standard reason given for why police shoot suspects in the torso is because of accuracy. From a distance, it’s harder to shoot someone in the leg or the arm; the chance of missing is much higher. Torsos are big, arms are small. From a distance, that makes sense.

But Shelby wasn’t at a distance. Neither were the other three officers that had arrived on the scene as she was following him back to his vehicle.

The only way they could have been closer is if they’d pinned to the ground.

Blatant overkill. Even if people don’t want to accept race as a factor (because white people do sometimes get killed by overzealous police, too), the police have a clear problem with abuse of force. Right?

I understand about cognitive dissonance. I understand how someone who has spent the two years since Michael Brown’s death or the four and a half years since Trayvon Martin’s death arguing that those people deserved it, would feel increasingly defensive as more cases come out that are more obvious and more blatant.

Trayvon Martin’s death is not a clear-cut case. He was shot by a private citizen who was acting in the capacity of kinda-sorta-cop (he was a neighborhood watch captain), and there’s some evidence that Martin did attack Zimmerman first.

Michael Brown’s death is not a clear-cut case, either. The jury was satisfied that Brown tried to take Officer Darren Wilson’s gun, and that there was a physical altercation. The jury also decided it was plausible that, at the time of the fatal shots, Brown was rushing at Wilson.

And what of Alton Sterling, pinned to the ground and apparently shot to death for struggling? What of Terence Crutcher, shot to death for possibly reaching into his SUV, where it turns out he didn’t have a gun?

◊♦◊

Admittedly, many of the police shootings publicized through the Black Lives Matter movement are not all clear-cut cases.

Tyre King, a 13-year-old shot dead by police in Ohio, may have been pulling a BB gun out of his waistband. Or maybe not.

Philando Castile may have looked like he was reaching for a gun in the moments before he was shot dead in a car with a child in the backseat.

Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice had a toy gun in his hand when the police just drove up and shot him.

And the beat goes on.

◊♦◊

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. The sleepers and apologists get distracted by the idea that some of the black males shot dead in the street by overzealous police officers are acting anything less than 100% compliant. Because Officer Shelby failed to do her job of turning on the dash cam, we won’t know for sure if she’d told Crutcher to stay put and he decided to walk to his car, or if she’d told Crutcher to walk to his vehicle and he actually was complying when she shot him dead.

And that is the key: Officer Shelby apparently failed to do her job of turning on the dash cam.

About Paul Hartzer

Paul Hartzer is a high school mathematics teacher and is former Lead Editor (Education) at The Good Men Project. His work with urban students of color pushes him to address his own privilege and biases. Paul loves language and strives to treat it with respect. He lives with his wife and his son and maintains a site of his interests, Curious Cheetah. You can also find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

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Paul. Your not confident of your judgment. You’re feeling lucky in your judgment of what you heard. Unless you were there, intimately involved, and most of those are wrong too, you cannot be confident, unless you’re relying on your own biases to tell you the truth. Which may or may not be real. Personally. Based on eye witness armchair quarterback in, I think we’re screwed. Welcome to the new world.

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2 years ago

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Mark

And its obvious through this entire site, not just your blog paul, that nobody cares about the fact that white guys are getting killed by cops more than black guys. It’s only black you seem to care about. Why? Surely some of those white guys were innocent too. But the reason you don’t hear about it, and why nobody cares, is that the black communities are rather tightly packed, which brings in more concentrated levels of criminality, and increases police presence. White population are scattered with criminal element too, but they’re rather widely dispersed and don’t attract the same amount… Read more »

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2 years ago

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Paul Hartzer

Quoting from the article: “Even if people don’t want to accept race as a factor (because white people do sometimes get killed by overzealous police, too), the police have a clear problem with abuse of force.”

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2 years ago

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Mark

I do not agree the police overall they abuse their force. They have no clue what they’re walking into most of the time. When they run into a person with a chip or a tube, the whole thing escalates. I’ve had a cop pull a gun on me twice. You? In both cases I talked it though. The first time I was seventeen. Possibly a suspect in a home invasion. I didn’t, but went with them to hopefully exonerate myself. Which happened. Thankfully. The second time I was 45 helping a neighbor with a brain tumor and a knife. Trying… Read more »

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2 years ago

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Paul Hartzer

I live in a city where cops are trained not to pull their guns at every provocation. It’s called Detroit. I’ve taught in urban schools. I’ve directed student traffic around police officers detaining suspects. No guns. Black teens pinned to the ground, no guns. If Detroit cops can do it, there’s no excuse for the rest of the country. Do I know there are good cops out there? Sure. Of course. Where are they when these things happen? Are they speaking out against overaggressive cops, or are they just sitting quietly and hoping it goes away again? And Mark, you’re… Read more »

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2 years ago

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Mark

Actually paul, as a therapist in mental institutions, and lock up facilities, similar things have happened to me. In that social field I CANNOT respond in kind. But otoh, not one of them had the possibility of a gun on them either, so I did not heed a gun. I won’t apologize for a cop that kills unnecessarily. That would be stupid. But what I am saying is social media has gotten so out of hand, that false witness sets off all sorts of mayhem unnecessarily as well. We’ve got to get some facts behind us all. And we need… Read more »

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2 years ago

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Saliek

Man. Paul. I think you have a new fan of your writing. I like your story, I just get so tired of the subject! Not your fault at all. You’re job was done graciously! I have written sort of the same piece. The police have a problem. And that problem starts in the Academy. Training. Why do they train with Armed Forces, learning war tactics?

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2 years ago

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Paul Hartzer

Thanks for the words, Saliek. I agree, it’s a systemic problem. Here’s are two related articles I wrote that you might like:

First of all you rush to full opinion without knowing any facts. This is a real problem with social media infonews. Secondly you’ve turned this solely into a racial issue. Black people getting killed by police. If they were truly innocent and the facts are there then the police get punished. This is not like the 1940s. We’ll guess what, white guys are getting killed by the cops too. Did you even for a moment stop and think why a cop would shoot someone in the first place? They’re all rogue cops? A culture and training of being killers? How… Read more »

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2 years ago

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Paul Hartzer

Officer Shelby has been charged with first-degree manslaughter, which is what my interpretation of the events would suggest is the correct charge (no premeditation).

I’m confident in my judgment.

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2 years ago

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Mark

Great. Me too. Now that some facts are in. You, nor I didn’t have any of them when you rushed to judgement. Do you not understand the distinction? That’s been the constant criticism of the left Paul. . You pronounce a jury verdict hoping you’re right. When you are you say see, I’m vindicated. I was right! But when it’s found you’re wrong you’re nowhere to be found. No apologies. No nothing. This is a serious problem today. This is what’s causing the aftermath violence. Some stupid shit tweets something and everybody goes off half cocked as if it’s true.… Read more »

This is not rushing to judgment: “Depending on who you listen to, Keith Lamont Scott had a gun or a book when he was shot dead in Charlotte.” That’s a statement of fact: Some witnesses insisted he had a book, others said he had a gun. This is not rushing to judgment: “What of Terence Crutcher, shot to death for possibly reaching into his SUV, where it turns out he didn’t have a gun?” I based everything I wrote about the Crutcher incident on the footage, and marked the conjecture with “maybe” and “possibly”. Meanwhile, I feel you’re rushing to… Read more »

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2 years ago

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Mark

Look Paul. Nobody’s really criticizing you here. It’s your tone of putting it to the article so quick is the issue. Our own governor does it all the time. It’s out of a feeling he should say something but has no clue what it is. Yep. Some said a book. Some said a gun. But I sure as he’ll wouldn’t post a perspective blog on what some have said. That’s what I’m trying, apparently on vain, to get across. It’s just inflating shit. The reality is always something in between. Do you realize all of the great things 99 plus… Read more »